Editor functions

This section describes various editor functions. Many pages contain a special input box:

This input box has four main parts:

• Caption - description of the edited value
• Edit box - here the value can be edited. It is validated according the selected units, invalid input is automatically corrected.
• Unit box - displays the selected units for the value. By clicking on the unit box the units can sometimes (where applicable) be switched
• Button - do some action with the value - e.g. jump to selected position
• Pick button - open a pick-list with predefined values

All these boxes support Undo - you can return the old value by pressing the 'Esc' key. The undo buffer is cleared when you press the 'Enter' key. By pressing the 'Enter' key you confirm the value.

In most cases 3 types of values can be edited:

• Fr. - Frames / Integer numbers. Integer value indicating the time in frame units (must comply with this regular expression: "-?\d*").
• HMS - Time. Time in format Hours:Minutes:Seconds,Fraction. The value can contain up to 2 colons (:) and one decimal separator (actual char depending on windows locale). Any part can have any number of digits. Result is calculated as H*3600 + M*60 + S + T/(10^number of digits after decimal separator). If there is only one colon, value is treated as Minutes:Seconds, without any colon the value is treated as Seconds. The fraction part can have any number of digits. The regular expression is "(-?\d*:?\d*:?\d*)([,\.]\d*)?".
• Real numbers. Sometimes the box requires a real number (with decimal point). It can be a number with one decimal separator and optionally a minus sign. The regular expression is "-?\d+([,\.]\d*)?"

When there is no unit indication, you should use your common sense to determine what type of value applies to particular edit box. The system doesn't allow to type invalid value.

Some boxes have a maximum and minimum value, when you enter higher or smaller value, it is automatically corrected to fit in the limits.

Decimal separator: You can use "." (dot) or "," (comma), the edit boxes accept both  independently of the Windows locale

Note: Some input boxes don't support unit switching, some have other units (% for example).

1. Advanced subtitle editor

This tab allows to change advanced subtitle parameters:

• Type - Type of the subtitle (used in SSA files)
  • Dialogue - subtitle is a normal subtitle
  • Comment - Same as dialogue, but the subtitle is not displayed
  • Picture - Show a picture instead of text. The subtitle text points to a picture file
  • Sound, AVI - play sound or movie. The path is specified by subtitle text
  • Command - execute an external program

  These types are used by SubStation Alpha, SP can't display them for now.

• Properties - Advanced subtitle properties used by SSA
  • Left, Right and Vertical margin - the free space on the screen that won't be occupied by the subtitle text
  • Marked subtitle - subtitle is "marked" in SSA. Marked subtitles are shown in bold in Editor, but the mark isn't used in SP for now.
  • Effect - subtitle effects defined in SSA (scrool karaoke etc.). They aren't rendered by SP for now.
• Line properties - Style overrides of subtitle lines used by MDVD and SRT
  • X and Y coordinates - position of the selected line on the screen (relative to movie resolution) (MDVD only).
  • Sel. line style - style of the selected line (that has cursor in it).

2. Reformat lines

Reformat subtitle lines - split too long lines and merge too short lines. Empty subtitles can be removed. The settings are:

• Split lines longer than screen width - split too long lines
• Remove empty subtitles - remove subtitles without any text
• Screen width [pixels] - select desired screen width
• Merge short lines
  • Never - Never merge short lines
  • Only when some long line was split - Merge short lines only when some long line in the same subtitle was split
  • Always - Always merge short lines
  • Exclude lines starting with - Don't merge lines starting with given char
• Ignore free lines (x,y<>0) - Ignore lines with non-default coordinates X,Y

The reformat is performed by clicking on the Reformat button

3. Merge / Split

Merge 2 subtitle files (when joining 2 movies into one) or split one file into 2 files (e.g. when splitting movie to fit on 2 CDs). The settings for Merge are:

• First subtitles length - Move second subtitles by this length (length of first movie part)
• Second subtitles offset - Adjust second subtitles position

The settings for Split are:

• Split point - Subtitles with Start greater than split point will be moved to second subtitle file

The functions are performed by clicking on appropriate buttons.

4. Move / Scale

4.1 Move subtitles

Move the subtitles in time. Use this if the subtitles have a constant time offset. The controls are:

• Edit box - enter the time offset you want to add to the subtitles. Enter negative value if the subtitles start too late, positive if they start too early.
• Only selected - move only subtitles marked in the main list
• Move - do the move operation

4.2 Change speed

Change the speed of subtitles. Use this if the subtitles are appearing more lately or early as the movie progress (they are running slower or faster). The controls are:

• Edit box - enter the desired speed in %. Experiment with the value, try the subtitles in player and if the speed change is not precise, reload the subtitles and modify this value a little
• Only selected - move only subtitles marked in the main list
• Change - change the speed by the value entered in the edit box

4.3 Change length

Change speed using Old and New length ratio. The settings are:

• New length - New length of the movie
• Old length - Old length of the movie (automatically filled when movie is loaded)

By clicking the Change button, new speed is calculated and set to Speed change box. the Move by box is cleared and then a general Adjust is performed.

4.4 Recalculate FPS

Change speed using Old and New FPS ratio (to adjust subtitles for a movie with different frame rate). Available only for frame-based subtitles. The settings are:

• New FPS - New frame rate
• Old FPS - Old frame rate

By clicking the Change button, new speed is calculated and set to Speed change box. the Move by box is cleared and then a general Adjust is performed. 

5. Transitions

Create a transition effect. There are 2 main transition types:

• Style transition - change subtitle style during transition. Create growing text or fading text color. Only font size and font color are taken into account. 
• Rolling text - create appearing or disappearing text.

Transitions are calculated into given number of steps. The more steps, the smoother the transition will be and the more subtitles we get (decreasing performance of the player). Selected subtitle is used as the base

The settings are:

• Start - Transition start, filled automatically from the selected subtitle. 
• End - Transition end
• Time per step - Time per single transition step. Use a reasonably big value, subtitles can't be displayed faster than the frame rate of the movie
• Step count - Number of steps in transition
• Rolling text - include the Appearing / disappearing text transition (for selected line only)
  • In - Text appears from nothing to full length
  • Out - Text disappears from full length to nothing
• Style - Change style during transition
  • Entire subtitle - Change style of entire subtitle
  • Selected line - Change style of selected line only
  • Target style - Target transition style (style of the last transition subtitle)

The Selected line box shows the text of the selected line (for information). Transition is created by clicking on the Create button

6. Correct OCR

Fix OCR (Optical Character Reader) errors. Such errors arise when ripping subtitles from DVD (i.e. with SubRip), because on DVD the subtitles are stored in bitmap format. The settings are:

•  Remove space in numbers - remove spaces between digits, for example 1 234 5 will be 12345
• Remove multiple spaces - Remove multiple spaces, keep only single spaces (e.g. shrink 3 spaces into one space), remove leading and trailing spaces.
• Fix OCR errors from list - Fix the OCR errors defined in the table
• Ask always - Ask always when error found (override error definitions)

On the left side is a grid containing error definitions. It has 4 columns:

• Search for - Invalid characters / strings to search (must not be empty)
• Replace with - Characters / strings for replacing the incorrect ones
• Replace where - Position where search for invalid strings:
  • Nowhere - Invalid string is not searched (user is not asked). Use only in 'Ask where' or for disabling errors
  • Start of word - Invalid string must be on start of the word (start of subtitle line or exactly after space)
  • Anywhere - Invalid string can be anywhere in the subtitle line
  • Except start - Except start of the word. Opposite to 'Start of word'
  • Between caps - Between capital letters - at least one capital letter on one side and non-letter char on the other side
  • Except caps - Opposite to 'Between caps'
• Ask where - Where to ask the user. Same values as for 'Replace where'. When an error is found and this value denies the question, the error is automatically corrected. Use this for errors that can't be automatically corrected (e.g. letters I and l).

Next to the grid is a toolbar containing five buttons:

• Add error - Add new row to the grid
• Remove error - Remove selected row from the grid
• Restore defaults - Remove all items and create default ones
• Open error list - Load error list from disk (in INI format)
• Save error list - Save error list to disk

The correction is started by clicking on the Fix OCR errors button. On top of the button is a progress bar showing the progress of this operation.

6.1 Confirmation dialog

While performing the correction, the Confirmation dialog may appear (depending on the value in 'Ask where' and 'Ask always'):

There are several important items in this box:

• Actual error in the form 'Search for' --> 'Replace with'
• Index  and count of the subtitles
• Text of the subtitle with the 'Search for' string highlighted
• Three buttons:
  • Yes - Confirm the correction (Y on keyboard)
  • No - Reject the correction (N on keyboard)
  • Cancel - cancel the whole operation (C on keyboard)

6.2 Statistics

After the operation, a dialog containing statistics is displayed:

This window contains three columns:

• Error - Actual error in the form 'Search for' --> 'Replace with'
• Corrected - How many times the error was corrected (automatic or allowed by user)
• Rejected - How many times the error was rejected by the user

The OCR error correction procedure doesn't employ any dictionary checking.

7. Multipoint Linear Resynchronization

This is advanced function that allows to synchronize subtitles with variable time errors (that were created e.g. for a low quality camera version) that are impossible to synchronize using only the time shift and speed change (Move/Scale). The time error is distributed linearly between the synchronization points.

Example:

• Black solid line denotes original times of the subtitles
• Red solid line denotes wanted times of the subtitles
• Green and purple solid lines denote the options for starting and ending subtitles
• Black dashed lines denote the resynchronization points
• Red dashed lines denote the differences between original subtitle times and wanted times

How to use this function:

1. Find at least 2 subtitles in the movie that start at bad times and define them as synchronization points (the more points, the better precision, points should be distributed through the whole movie)
2. Find the correct start times by using the bookmark edits and listening to the movie
3. Set the options for the outer subtitles
4. Save the definition for later use if you make a mistake
5. Execute the function with the Resynchronize button

The columns in the grid:

• No: number of the synchronization point
• Sub. No.: number of the subtitle that defines this synchronization point
• Subtitle text: preview of the subtitle text (same as in the subtitle grid, taken from the subtitle determined by Sub. No.)
• Old start: original start time of the subtitle
• New start: wanted new start of the subtitle - this is a bookmark edit with the same possibilities as the bookmarks in Player
• Difference: calculated difference between the original and new start

The buttons in the toolbar are:

• Add: add a synchronization point (with the subtitle selected in the subtitle grid)
• Remove: remove the synch. point
• Remove all: remove all the synchronization points
• Auto create: automatically create 8 synchronization points equally distributed through the movie
• Load: load the definition from disk. Note: Subtitles must be loaded before the synch. points, otherwise an error is given
• Save: save the definitions to disk

If the first and last synchronization point is not at the first and last subtitle, there are options for the subtitles out of the bounds:

• Ignore: do not change the times (outer parts of the black solid line in the graph)
• Move constantly: add a constant time to all the outer subtitles (determined by the first/last synch. point; see the purple line)
• Move along line: move along a prolonged line (see the green line)

The resynchronization is executed through clicking on the Resynchronize button.

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